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The Seven Basic Quality Control Tools

Saturday, November 26th, 2011

Product or service quality is everyone’s responsibility, from a “Mom and Pop Shop” to an international corporation. So I thought I give those who don’t know how to look at the quality of what they do, a set of basic tools. Quality professional have all heard of “The Seven Basic Quality Control Tools” so here they are.

The Seven Basic QC (Quality Control) Tools are a given set of graphical techniques identified as being helpful in troubleshooting issues related to quality[1]. These seven are called basic because they can be used easily by anyone to solve the vast majority of quality-related issues. Many quality professional believe these were originated by Dr. Ishikawa, a world renowned quality professional.  But, he would tell you that he was inspired by the “Seven Famous Weapons of Benkei[2] . The designation as the “Seven Basic Tools of Quality” arose in postwarJapan.

The Tools

  1. 1.      Cause and Effect Diagrams: (Fishbone Diagrams, Ishikawa Diagrams)

These diagrams are tools that organize a group or persons knowledge about the causes of a problem or issue and display the information graphically.

 

It was originally created and used by Dr. Kaoru Ishikawa and is sometimes called an Ishikawa Diagram. Also, because of its shape it is called a Fishbone Diagram. In general what you do is brainstorm ideas (causes) then group them in to categories. Those categories become the many branches of the Cause and Effect diagram.

  1. 2.      Check Sheets:

This is another simple but powerful tool. Check Sheets are lists of items and the frequency that the item occurs. They can be made in so many different ways that many times, we don’t think of them as a list, but they are. below are two, one that kind of looks like a list the other not so much. On the shoe the defects are marked with an “x” in the location it was found.

They are use to answer many important questions such as:

  • Has all the work been done?
  • Has all the inspection been done?
  • How frequently a problem occurs?

They are often used to remind individuals doing complex tasks of what to do and in what order. They are also used many times in conjunction with other tools to help quantify or validate information.

  1. 3.      Control Charts:

Control charts are the most difficult of the seven tools to use. They are seldom the method  of choice. When a process step is important, we would prefer that the step not vary at all. ONLY when this can not be accomplished in an economical way does one choose to use a control chart. Below is an “XBar-R Chart” also called an “Average and Range Control Chart”.

Control charts are only useful if the step (operation or function), over time, exhibits measurable random variation. Control charts display the data over time (Time is on the x axis above listed as sample). Control Limits (the red lines) are displayed on control charts, where data falling within the control limits are considered “normal” variation. Any point outside the control limits are considered “special caused” variation and need to be look at and corrected through an action plan. If you create a control chart, you must also have with it an action plan.

Besides control limits for control charts, there are several other type of trends (runs) that can indicate an out-of-control process.

What I have shown above is only one type a control chart and one of the simplest to use but there are several others (not so simple to use). Below is a Decision Tree Diagram of the different type and there use. Be sure you understand the application of each control chart or get help if you plan to use one of these.

  1. 4.      Histograms:

Histograms are a “picture” of a set of data (or information). It is created by grouping the data you collect in to “Cells” or “Bins” (Bars in the chart below).

Histograms take your data and give it a shape (Distribution). With this, you can see the data sets spread, central tendencies, and if it meets requirements. As you can see, it is a valuable troubleshooting tool. You can take it a compare differences between machines, people, suppliers etc. Never use a histogram alone always also plot it in a time ordered  plot (run chart).

  1. 5.      Pareto Charts:

Pareto Charts are a specialized Histogram of count data. It arranges the Bins or Cells in largest to smallest counts and gives you an accumulation line as seen below.

The Pareto Chart gets its name from the use of the Pareto Principle which states “ 80% of the effect comes from 20% of the causes”. Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, originated this principle by determining that 80% of the land inItalyis owned by 20% of the population. Later it was found to hold true in many things and help us focus on the critical few. With a chart like this a team can decide where to place its priority and focus ( the big hitters). This is extremely helpful when time and money is limited as it is in most cases.

  1. 6.      Scatter Diagrams:

Scatter plot are a very simple tool to use to see if there is a correlation between two things (i.e. does one thing lead to another). I always before going into any major analysis of data, plot the data in some way to get a “gut feel” of what is happening. This tool lets you create a simple picture showing how two or more variables change “together”.

As one can see in the chart above the fruit on the tree increase in weight the longer it is on the tree. In scatter charts we see if one thing relates (correlates) with another. Below is a set of chart that shows some of the relationships you might find with this tool.

  1. 7.      Stratification: (Flow Charts, Run Charts, etc.)

To me Stratification is a catch-all for summarizing, picturing, or applying some tool to data so you can understand what is happening. Stratification is the process of dividing members of a population into homogeneous subgroups before using it. The data (strata) should be mutually exclusive: every element in the population must be assigned to only one subgroup (stratum). The data should also be collectively exhaustive: no population element (data) can be excluded.

That’s a mouthful, but if you look at above six tools all of them do this stratification of the data. In many texts they list either flow charts or run charts under this seventh tool area. A run chart is just the “Individuals Chart” of the above control chart without control limits. A flow chart takes a group of steps in a process and summaries them into a map of the way the process works. They are sometimes called a Process Map or a Process Flow Map.

They are created to:

  • Create a common understanding of the process flow
  • Clarify steps in a process
  • Uncover problems and misunderstanding in a process
  • Reveal how a process operates (good and bad)
  • Helps you ID places for improvement.

Well there you have a short description of the Seven Basic Quality Tools. Stay in touch as I go into each tool with details of how to construct and interpret them. If, you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090


[2] Ishikawa, Kaoru (1990), Introduction to Quality Control (1 ed.), Tokyo: 3A Corp, p. 98, ISBN 9784906224616, OCLC 23372992

 

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Do Customers Know What They Really Want?

Friday, August 19th, 2011

In an earlier article, “Creating Customer Value” I explained that to insure you are creating customer value at any given step or your process you need to ask and answer three questions with a yes. They are:

  1. Did the thing in the process change?
  2. Does the customer care about this change?
  3. Was it done right the first time?

 

Well in those three questions is one from the customers view point “Does the customer care about this change?” Many time we do not really understand or see this view (customer cares about) clearly. We might say for them to care about something that they must understand what they want. Well let try to set the record straight on this one.

First, I’d like to start with my definition of customer value (Want):

Customer value is a product or service that is received by the customer at the right time, place, cost and functions AS DEFINED BY THE CUSTOMER.

It should be noted that time, place, and cost are all parts of your delivery process (which we try to streamline) and only function addresses the actual product or service once in hand of the customer. In the titles question many times we only focus on this “function” but if we do, we miss three other major parts of customer value and may loose the customer because of that narrow sightedness. So DO NOT FORGET the other parts of customer value.

But now let’s talk about this “function” in terms of what the customer wants. I have had discussions with some colleagues that will hold fast; that the customer DOES NOT always know what they want. And, I can not fault them on it when it come to the exact details of what they want. A good example I was given was my colleague said his wife’s birthday was coming up and he had no idea what to get her. I believe him, I have the same problem but some how he and I both get something they like. How does that happen? I think it because we don’t know the details but we do have some more global thoughts (even if they are what NOT to get her). So in reality we do have some, even though vague, ideas of what to get. And those thought will lead us to some places that we think we can find that present.

For instance, my wife love to help in the remodeling of the house, but it will not be “my friendly hardware store” that I will go to purchase her present. No I’ll, and so might my colleagues, go to stores that my wife goes and buys things for herself. I do know what she likes and dislikes as I see what she purchases at these stores. Plus with a little help, I hope, for the store personnel, I can find something that will be just the right thing. It usually works well.

So does the customer always know what they want? I say a BIG YES!! Maybe not the details. But if I walk into your place a business there was a reason and your sales persons will need to understand that and work with me to fill in the details or I will probably go somewhere where I will find the help.

Well there you have it. Customers do know what they want even if it is some what vague. So I hope you are listening when they show up. There are other articles on Customer value that you can find on my blog http://www.sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com/knowledgebase/ . As always, if you have any questions feel free to contact me.

 

Bersbach Consulting

Peter Bersbach

Six Sigma Master Black Belt

http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com

peter@bersbach.com

1.520.829.0090

 

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The NFL Talks Missing some Six Sigma Rigor

Tuesday, March 22nd, 2011

As practitioners of Six Sigma you may have caught this, but there are two important elements that the NFL talks have missed and I feel will lead to poor results or none at all. These two important elements are the concept of Customer Value, or some may say “stakeholder” value. Second is the concept of Teamwork. This second one I would think they would get since Football is a “Team” sport, but maybe not.

Customer Value

Customer or stakeholder value in solving an issue, involves insuring we know who the customer and or stakeholders are. Generally speaking you look at where the money comes from, Customers (fans). This is why in most places we talk about “customer Value”.  I also like to expand the “customer” to be all stakeholders because without all stakeholders a product can not be produced. So I define Stakeholders in three. Those three groups are:

1.      Customers – Where the income (money) comes from.

2.      Stockholders/owners – Who’s money is invested in the business and that investment is being spent to produce the value for the customer. Yon this group because in all businesses you have to spend money to make money. Customer pay for product at delivery usually not in advance.

3.      Employees/ Players – Who perform the “manufacturing of the product” for the customer.

Both the Stockholders/owners and the Employees/Players are investing time and/or money to create a value for the customer.

So where is the customer in the NFL talks? In businesses that are working similar issue this point and input would not be left out of the discussion, where clearly it is in the NFL talks. Businesses include them because the solution may not even be focus on increasing value to the customer. Which means insuring that the change will increase customer value thus increase profits.  When customers are left out ( even though they don’t know they are) they go some where else. That is what happened in the steel industry. That is also what was and may still be going on in the automotive industry.

By the way value can be defined (Seen) by asking three simple questions and you are creating value IF and only IF you answer yes to all three. They are:

  1. Does the Customer Care ( Is the customer willing to pay for this change)
  2. Did the “thing” in the process change. (With all the step you go through in changing a Flat tire ONLY removing the flat and placing the new tire on the car are value added.
  3. Last was it done right the first time. Customer do not like to pay for repairs or rework.

Teamwork

Teamwork in not decision making by concession or compromise it is decision making by consensus  or accord. To do that you have to pick you team members carefully. They need to come from all three stakeholder groups and each member needs to have the following qualities:

  1. Wants to make a difference by improving the process creating a better working place.
  2. Is willing to work on and support the team “project”.
  3. Is willing to take the risk of offering “Wild” ideas
  4. Is willing to withhold judgment
  5. Can “Piggyback off other’s ideas
  6. Is willing to LISTEN (no side talks)

 

As you can see not all the stakeholders are on the team and those that are there do not or will not agree with the 6 items above. In the six sigma world of problem solving this will only lead to disaster.

Well there you have my thoughts on the NFL talks. If, you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.

 

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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Measurement

Wednesday, October 20th, 2010

[Note: Most of the information for this article comes from “The Six Sigma Handbook”[i]]

Why do we measure things? To see how things are, or if change has occurred or to understand something. Measurement is just looking at something and describing it in numbers. The rules (mapping functions) that we use to describe the “thing” in numbers provide us with a model of reality. If this model is correct (valid) we can learn about the real world by studying the model and the numbers that it predicts. Without these measurements systems astronomers could not describe the make up of galaxies billions of light-years away from us.

Every questions we have starts in the real world But to understand the question and come up with the answer we use mapping functions (rules) to describe the real world question using numbers. There are times when we map to a non numeric entities in the real world, Like a question about color but we convert these into numbers like the number of red things in a room. These characteristics (elements) are X’s. The “numbers” are Y’s derived using the mapping function as a transfer function of the elements into numbers.

A good example of this we all can relate to is the fuel tank on your car. It would be nice to know how much fuel is in your tank? That would be a measurement of the amount of fuel in your tank.


Real World - Your fuel tank with some amount of fuel in it.

Mapping function – A float with a sensor on a spindle connected to a fuel gage. The gage marked off in numerical intervals. Plus YOU reading the indicator.

Numbers – The gage needle pointing to a numerical value on the gage (like the 1/8 mark just above Empty (0))

Usage – Time to get gas!


Measurement Scales

Not all data (numbers we collect) are created equal. That does not mean some are better than others is just means that some tells us more information than other. You will find that our numbers fall into one of four scales. In teams that I have worked with I always bring up the discussion of measurement scales because not everyone looks at how they would measure something in the same way. Some may look at the fuel tank about as fuel empty or half full, other may talk in gallons of fuel. With that said we need to understand the scale we are going to measure the real world in. The scale of the data to be collected in the measurement process. .So here are the four measurement scales.

  • Nominal Scale – These are numbers that only indicate the presents or absence of an attribute. All we can do here is count items with or without this attribute.
  • Ordinal Scale – This scale gives us a little bit more information. With this scale we can say if an item has more or less of an attribute With this scale we can rank order items.

  • Interval Scale – This scale is use when we are measure the differences between observations. Interval scale numbers that are equally different represent differences of equal magnitude. The zero vale of an interval scale is arbitrary.

  • Ratio Scales – This scale is like Interval Scale except it has a true zero point. In other words you can have nothing less than zero.

Well there you have my thoughts on Measurement and the importance of your scale of measurement. Next time I am going to discuss the different statistical tool use for different scales of measurement. If, you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.


Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090



[i] Thomas Pyzdek The Six Sigma Handbook, 2003, McGraw Hill

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Understanding Variation

Tuesday, September 28th, 2010

There is variation everywhere. Look around there are no true clones of anything, everything is at least slightly different. Even in identical twins there is a difference that the parents can see to tell them apart. It is variation in the world that feeds evolution. It is this variation that allows life to survive on this planet. Not everything survives but those that adapt (change/ vary) to the changing world do survive. So as a society we tend to classify things at any given moment. Classification gives us an ability to take a look at things and figure out what makes them “tick” (survive). These classification come in one of two types. Those two types are categorical (discrete) information (data) and numerical (continuous) information (data).

Variation Classifications:

Let’s take a good look at these two types of classification of information I call data. First there is Categorical (discrete) data.

Definitions:

Categorical – Belonging to a category.

Categorize – To describe by labeling or giving a name to a group of characteristics.

Discrete – Apart or detached from others; separate; distinct.

Categorical data can only be one of a limited number of non-numerical choices. It is sometimes, in numerical terms (becomes numerical data), called count data because the only way to measure it is by counting. Examples of this type of data are:

  • Best/better/worse
  • Small/Medium/Large
  • Restaurant $$ ratings
  • Movie ** ratings
  • Pass/Fail
  • Yes/No
  • Red cars
  • Doctors
  • Broken
  • Repaired

Second is Numerical ( continuous) data.

Definitions:

Numerical – of  or pertaining to numbers; of the nature of a number.

Continuous – uninterrupted in time; without cessation.

Numerical data is from a measuring process. Examples of this type of data are:

  • Height
  • Weight
  • Length
  • Depth
  • Voltage
  • Time

Business and Variation:

In businesses we compensate for variation to try to meet customer needs and expectations. This compensation cost money. In Six Sigma we try to understand and deal with this variation. We use statistics to help recognize and thus assess the variation by organizing it in a meaningful way. Statistics help change assumptions to conclusions about where the errors (variations) are and how bad it is affecting our business. Statistics help “Picture” the variation we feel or think is happening.

Definition

Statistic – a numerical fact usually computed from a sample.

Well there you have my thoughts on understanding variation. Next time I am going to discuss measuring that variation and the proper scale of measurement to use depending on the type of  variation you are trying to measure. If, you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.


Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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The Element of Time

Friday, September 24th, 2010

As we all know there is variation everywhere and in everything. This includes people pencils, traffic at an intersection, customer needs, goods, services, and of course processes. If you can not predict this variation, I can bet you are compensating for it and that compensation is costing you money!!

In Six Sigma we use statistics to recognize and thus assess and understand that variation so we can predict it ahead of time. This reduces our costs and increases customer satisfaction. Statistics can help you “Picture” variation. Many times we look at data that we gather in various ways but some times we forget about the element of time. At any given point things may look great but over time many times things vary. This variation can not be seen in what we call a histogram of all the data or any other kind of plot that does not use time on one of the axis. For example below (Figure 1) is a plot of Systolic blood pressure of one individual over four months. This plots shows where the average Systolic Blood Pressure would be if it was Normal, Marginally High, or High. In this individuals case it does not look that great.

As you can see this individuals Systolic pressure is all over the place and does not look like a normal distribution. It may be Bi or Multi modal (two or more things effecting the results making several peaks in the Histogram).  From this we can not draw to much of a conclusion but to tell him to see a doctor. Or should we??

If I take that same data and plot over time we get the following graphic.

Now clearly you can see a shift in the blood pressure over the 4 months. All for the better. We might not want the person to see the doctor but find out what might have cause this improvement. A different solution just because we looked at the data in a time sequence chart.

What these two graphs tell us is that if you have collected data over any given time period I’d suggest that you plot it in what is called an x or individuals chart (Figure 2 above) over time and see what you see in patterns there. In fact many times I plot the data in several different ways just to see what I can find. What kinds of patterns I see that can lead me to why the data varies so much.

If, you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.


Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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Another form of muda – An Article review

Monday, August 9th, 2010

August 6th, 2010

Number Nine[1]

I have written several articles on the seven types of waste that have been read by a lot of folks. Well now I’d like to expand those seven to nine. As you will see in this article in Six Sigma we are continuously trying to improve even Six Sigma’s tools and techniques. Here a user finds a need to define another type of waste. Why? Because, as Mr. Navetta puts it, categorizing another form of  muda/ waste can help you eliminate it.

So my articles talked of seven and Mr. Navetta now has create number nine. What happen to eight? Well eight is a Toyota developed one called unused employee resources that I included in a category I called Inventories and/or other resources.

Number Nine is: “Material underutilization” Mr. Navetta describes it as leftover material once the material has been used. His example is the “skeletons” from a stamping machine which an excellence example. He says you may not know if it is truly a waste but tag it and find out. He mentions that the spacing could be due to closer would cause stress within the part. But I am with him, ask the question. It maybe that with a re-layout of the die one could get more pieces from the sheet.

But stamping is not the only place. Think about forms where we have multiple copies that are sent out. Many times processes get changed where fewer copies are needed and the number of copies is not changed. It is material that is under utilized and a waste.  We will tend to throw the extra copy away rather than get the form changed.

Can you think of other situations that fit into this category of waste? Leaving a comment below, emailing me, call me, or leaving a comment on my website.

Great article kudos to Mr. Navetta

As always if, you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.


Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090


[1] Jim Navetta, “Number Nine – Categorizing another form of muda can help you eliminate it,” Quality Progress, Vol. 43, No.8, August 2010, pp. 64,

http://www.asq.org/qualityprogress/departments-columns-current/i,ndex.html?ssUserText=&column=15&mode=nav&lst=hp

Note: The website above is on the American Society for Quality website and to access it you need to be a member. But there are way to purchase the article from ASQ.


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Six Sigma Success takes a Cultural Change

Friday, July 23rd, 2010

Change

As cited in my Six Sigma Overview session, Six Sigma is a business culture change. You can apply Six Sigma techniques to a single project and you might be successful, but to make a big impact on the bottom line of a company it needs to be a full fledged shift in the way an organization looks at solving issues and problems that keep it from meeting its major business goals and objectives. Using Six Sigma on one project does not make Six sigma successful in a company. Six sigma has to be infused into the company’s  everyday process and everyday thinking. Change is hard for people to deal with because they are afraid of the unknown. The actual change is situational or external: a new policy, a new job, a new supervisor. What we have real trouble with is the transition. The transition is psychological or internal. It is the process people go through to deal with the change. Many of the changes that affect us are events that we can’t control.  Our personal transition, however, is something we can control.

Six Sigma is a mind set. A way everyone in the company looks at solving issues. It is a mind set of expected questions to the way a solution was developed and implemented. It is a proven approach that when incorporated in the business culture will result in step function improvements to your business. Six Sigma is not talking about totally changing the way you run your business, but changing the way you solve issues and roadblocks that come up as you are trying to meet your top level goals and objective. A simple and straight forward definition of Six Sigma is:

Six Sigma  is  a 5 step process based on facts and data focused on your customer value to grow your business.

As  simple and straight forward that this definition is,  one of the hardest cultural changes in this definition is the “based on facts and data”. You think that would be easy, but when the boss says it’s so, it’s so! Or is it? With this new cultural change opinions have to be backed by facts and data. Why? Because what was true yesterday may not be true today. Everyone in the organization needs to understand this. People get very defensive about their opinions. That is because they are hired for their knowledge, skills, and experience. That said Six Sigma does NOT throw out anyone’s opinions but uses them as a starting point to solve the issue then moves on to collect data to verify or validate the opinion.

Often I have been given a project to form a team and solve an issue and in the Define step of DMAIC we find that what the boss thought was the issue or cause was not really it but another area was the cause. Everyone has to understand that we always back our statements with facts and data.

Another area that becomes a roadblock for making this a cultural change is not having projects aligned with the top level company goals and objectives. This is very important to keeping top management’s commitment to the projects. If you have people working issues that are not focused on these goals and objectives you will find that management will pull resources (people, equipment, money) from the project to help areas of a higher priority. Yes management may be reluctant at first to having Six Sigma projects working key issues but that is what it was designed for. Designed to work on key issues that the company has little or no idea how to solve. Designed to work those areas where people say it cannot be done. With challenging issues you need a process to identify the root cause through facts and data to find the best solution. Six Sigma has that process in DMAIC (D = Define, M = Measure, A = Analyze, I = Improve, C = Control).

Well there is a little insight into what is meant by a business cultural change and why it is hard to accomplish. As always, if you have questions or comments please feel free to contact me by leaving a comment below, emailing me, calling me, or leaving a comment on my website.

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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The Impact of Six Sigma

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

There is a lot of talk about Six Sigma today, as there has always been, and many time companies fail in implementing Six Sigma because they just do not believe enough to make that commitment up front. They do not understand what “Six Sigma” means to their bottom line. Or even how to translate what they currently do into Six Sigma savings.

So lets talk about Six Sigma the metric. What does it really mean in terms of your business? The average company out there that has not embraced Six Sigma is running just below four sigma. If you took that average company and created a Six Sigma Culture in it you would see[i]:

  • 20% margin improvement
  • 12-18% capacity improvement
  • 10-30% capitol reduction

Can not believe these numbers? They are true, over an over I see these types of impact in companies that embrace a true Six Sigma culture. Lets look at some numbers, although they maybe not be what is really happening out there. Let’s look at four areas that most everyone has to deal with on a regular basis; the mail system, drinking water, electrical service and prescription drugs. If you were in the United States here is what these services would look like at a 3 sigma level:

A 3 Sigma World

 

Service

Defect Rate

Postal System

20,000 lost pieces per hour

Drinking Water System

Unsafe water for 15 minutes per day

Electrical Service

No electrical service available for 7 hours a month

Prescription Drug Services

8 wrong prescriptions per minute

Where you live maybe better or worse than what you see above. In the US I do believe it is better than this in all cases. How would these services look in a 6 Sigma World?

A 6 Sigma World

 

Service

Defect Rate

Postal System

2.5 lost pieces per week

Drinking Water System

Unsafe water for .2 seconds per year

Electrical Service

No electrical service available for 1.1 seconds every 5 years.

Prescription Drug Services

3 wrong prescriptions per year

I’d guess that in most everyone’s case most of these service would not be today at this level. So how bad are things out there. Well that depends on what you are talking about. Below is a chart[ii] that show how the average company in several areas are performing. These areas are:

  • In the US, getting tax advice from the Internal Revenue Service. - They are better in collecting taxes then giving you or I advice on doing our taxes.
  • Order write-ups – This is when you go into a store or even on-line an place an order.
  • Doctor Prescription Writing – This is the actual process of your doctor writing your prescriptions. We, in the US, are lucky that there are Nurses, Pharmacy techs, and Pharmacists that check these and correct them before you get them. But this is one reason medical cost are so high.
  • Restaurant Bills – Ever gone to a restaurant and got the bill only to find it was wrong. Hmmmmm!
  • Airline Baggage Handling – Ever traveled and found your luggage damaged or lost totally? Even if they find it later and return it this is what this level of Sigma feels like.
  • Domestic Airline Fatality Rate – This rate is lower than the rate of deaths due to mistakes made in hospitals. Hmmmm

Real World Sigma

How does this happen? It is due to variations that happen all the time in everything we do. A Six Sigma approach (culture) make you work at understanding and addressing the day to day variations in your processes that you now compensate for, which costs you money. It looks at the variations and looks for patterns to discover and interpret the errors (variations) seen.

Lets take a simple task (a step in a process) that almost everyone can understand because at one time you have tried this; shooting free throws (step)  in basketball (a process). Now to make a free throw there are a lot more factors or thing that can make one miss ( I know because I miss all the time). But for this example we will look at only five; Vision, Grip, Stance, Reflex, and Rotation. Lets say for everyone of these factors 95% of the time you do any one of them right. That means that 5% of the time you get any one of them wrong. BUT to make the shot you have to get them all right at the same time. So if making a shot only required these five factors and you feel you are at that “95%” level that means that you will make it, get all 5 factors right at the same time, only 77% of the time. By the way this is about a 2 sigma task or step (2 sigma would give each factor 95.45% and an overall result of 79.23%). If you were 99.73% (3 sigma) you would make the shot 98.66% of the times you tried. IF you were a 6 sigma shooter (99.99999998%) you would make it 99.99999990% of the time.

But this is for each time you step on the line to shot a free throw. In the NBA during an average game there are 26 free throw shots attempted. This means the total number of opportunities for nonconformance ( or missed shots) is 5factor X 26 shots = 130 opportunities to make it or not. That changes things a bit. This means that making every shot in the game is as follows for the sigma level you are shooting at:

  • 2 Sigma = .2%
  • 3 Sigma = 70.08%
  • 6 Sigma = 99.99997%

Now that puts me at about a 2 sigma level and a definitely not an NBA level player. Where are the best professionals? Where are the worst  professionals?

As you can see by these number failure rates increase at a very high rate as the number of products (shots) and factors (vision, grip, stance, reflex, and rotation) increase. This is why it is so important to use Six Sigma to keep the competitive edge in your company. Most companies processes have more than 1 step (just as basketball is more than just shooting free throws) and each step has several factors where you can make a mistake. All of these steps and factors drive the defect rate up. Just think every time you touch the thing you are working on you can do it right or wrong. For example picking up a glass, you can grip it firm or not and drop the glass. This is were those improvement come from.

Well there you have my short summary of the impact of Six Sigma on a company. If you have questions or comments please leave them or send me an Email.

Bersbach Consulting
Peter Bersbach
Six Sigma Master Black Belt
http://sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com
peter@bersbach.com
1.520.829.0090

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[i] Tom Pyzdek Presentation Managing for Success; ASQ QMD 2000

[ii] Source: Milt Williams, Freudenberg Non-wovens, presentation to management May 6, 1999

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Article Review – Where Process-Improvement Projects Go Wrong (WSJ)

Monday, January 25th, 2010

Today a friend sent me this article "Where Process-Improvement Projects Go Wrong" from the Wall Street Journal. The author seems to feel that most Lean Six Sigma projects fail, but has some very interesting lessons learned.

I agree with your article when it comes to how weight-loss and Six Sigma fail. They both do fail just like a spring, But I disagree with how often they fail. I have seen and read hundreds of successful projects that show Six Sigma successes[i]. I have not read them but I feel there are probably just as many in weight loss success as well. Yes some are successful in several projects before the “fad” wears off, but what really makes them fail. Both Weight Loss and Six Sigma, failure is due to a lack of  commitment to a cultural change not just a few projects. I think you found that out too in your lessons learned[ii].

Lets look at your four lessons learned:

  1. “…the extended involvement of a Six Sigma or other improvement expert is required of teams are to remain motivated.” This is very true. IF the Expert is pulled on any improvement project usually it means failure. Where you have a company that has committed to a Six Sigma cultural change, pulling the expert means closure of the project and an explanation from top management (not a lower level) of the reason it is no longer a viable or priority project. All Six Sigma project should be a high priority project.
  2. “…performance appraisals need to be tied to successful implementation of improvement projects.”  This also is true. Every project, in a company committed to a Six Sigma cultural change, has a sponsor who insures that the project is aligned to company goals and objectives that directly impact his or her departments performance. This means failure of the project is failure to meet the goals that they have committed to and YES their performance appraisals are tied to the success of those goals and the perforance of their department.
  3. “… improvement teams should have no more than six to nine members and the timeline for launching a project should be no longer than six to eight weeks.” Since every project should be aligned to key company goals, it would mean that top management would what this project done NOW and not later. Delay would only cost the company money. If that is not the case the project should be dropped. By the way the “DEFINE[iii]” step helps insure this IF it is done right. Also in Define not only is the start decided but also the expected completion date and team membership. People, the most important resource of a company, need to be allocated to maximize their skills. In Six Sigma teams need to be small (5-10) so that the rest of the company can meet its customers demands. Even that many has a big impact on a department. So each team has to be carefully selected to represent all that will be impacted, but large enough to accomplish the task in the time allotted. This is all done in DEFINE with the “expert” and the Sponsor.
  4. “…executives need to directly participate in improvement projects, not just “support” them.” When a company has truly committed to this cultural change and deployed Six Sigma properly you will find every project has a director-level sponsor identified, duties specified, and sufficient time committed and scheduled in advance. Here the sponsor is part of the project team. That is how important the project is to the company.

If Six Sigma is implemented right as a business cultural change in the way they address issue and problems that hold them back from achieving their goals, then everyone get the idea and a voice. It becomes an improvement method everyone is focused on, understands and likes because they have an input into the process.

Peter Bersbach

Bersbach Consulting

peter@bersbach.com

1.520.829.0090

[i] Six Sigma Forum Magazine, ASQ Six Sigma Forum Division, www.sixsigmaforum.com

Quality Progress, American Society for Quality, www.quality progress.com

Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare, Lionheart Publishing Inc., www.psqh.com/digital

Quality Digest, Quality Digest, http://www.qualitydigest.com/content/six-sigma

Quality in Healthcare, ASQ Healthcare Division, www.asq.org/qhc

The Quality Management Forum, ASQ Quality Management Division, www.asq-qm.org 

[ii] Where Process-Improvement Projects Go Wrong, Wall Street Journal | Business, January 5, 2010, http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB20001424052748703298004574457471313938130-lMyQjAyMTAwMDIwNTEyNDUyWj.html 

[iii] The First step of DMAIC – Define, Peter Bersbach, Bersbach Consulting, October 27, 2009, http://www.sixsigmatrainingconsulting.com/uncategorized/the-first-step-of-dmaic-%e2%80%93-define/


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Posted in Introduction to Six Sigma, Leading Six Sigma, Success Stories | 1 Comment »

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